Wii Fit - My First Day

A local video game store started selling their US versions of Wii Fit last night, so I picked it up this afternoon. Omg, I am so out of shape.

I am 5′3″, 110 pounds, with a BMI of 19.4. In other words, I’m totally fit and normal, according to Wii Fit. My balance is even fairly decent, although it could use a little work. The “game” doesn’t factor in your resting heart rate or anything like that. If it did, it would know that I’m REALLY REALLY out of shape…lol. One of the things I liked about the setup, was after you do the body test, it asks you to commit to a goal. As someone who’s not overweight and can eat whatever she wants, I can tell you from personal experience that it’s REALLY hard to commit to an exercise program if you don’t have a goal. Since I don’t need to lose weight, I’ve never been able to commit to a program. So I set my goal to “maintain my weight and BMI.” You’re probably thinking, “Well, you should have made that your goal before.” True, but I never looked at it that way and no one ever suggested that to me. I simply never thought of it.

After doing the body test, I did a sampling of all four modes: yoga, strength, aerobic, and balance. You can choose either a male or female trainer. I picked a male, although the female one wasn’t irritating or bouncy or anything. I just prefer not to look at a female with perfect body proportions when I’m exercising. It’s depressing. The “game” calculates how many minutes you actually spend doing these activities, so I stopped when I hit 30 minutes. I had fun, but there were times when I thought my Wii was trying to kill me… Like when I decided to do jackknife sit-ups or when I went for a little jog. I worked up a sweat and I can guarantee you that I’m going to be a little sore tomorrow.

For anyone interested in trying out Wii Fit, here are a few tips. First of all, there’s no warm-up option, so make sure you stretch before you start. Second, the step aerobics suck. I barely got any perfects because the music didn’t seem to sync with the Mii’s on the screen. Third, wear loose pants with pockets so you don’t have to hold the Wii Remote while running in place.

I’m looking forward to playing with this game every day, 30 minutes a day. At 34, I’m starting to feel “not young.” And this isn’t because I’m getting old. It’s just that since I lead such a sedentary lifestyle, playing games and all that, I don’t get as much exercise as I should. The last time I visited my doctor, my blood pressure was on the high end of normal, so he scolded me about my activity level. Wii Fit, in addition to taking a multi-vitamin every day and eating more fruits and vegetables, is part of an overall plan to increase my total wellness.